High school physics education issues as seen by some California teachers: From content standards to critical thinking

Monday, August 17, 2009

The Night Before STAR Scores

'Twas the night before STAR scores, when all through the schoolThe IT guy was stirring, he’s nobody’s fool

The envelopes were placed in mail cubbies with careIn hopes Jack O’Connell soon would be there

The teachers were nestled all snug in their bedsWhile visions of new students danced in their heads

When, what to my wondering eyes should appearBut a web page replaced since the one from last year

The layout was simple, a bit of a boreI knew right away it had all the new scores

As rapid as PDFs, the courses they cameThe Vice Principals knew every last one by name

“Now English! now Sum. Math! now Physics! and History!On Bio!, on Geom! on EarthSci! and Chemistry!”

The reports were, as always, to be put on a shelfI laughed when I saw them, in spite of myself

Some scores were up while others were downNot worth the effort to work up a frown

IT guy said nothing but went right to workFilled all the envelopes then turned with a jerk

And I heard a VP as he came into sightSay “Check all your data; next year get it right!”

UPDATE: My "old school" ways have once again lead me astray. Back in the old days (2008), STAR results from the Spring administration were posted on the CDE's website by August 15. I know that seems like a long time, but that's a story for another post. It appears that that "ides of August" deadline was beginning to fit too tight. So the CDE has loosened its belt by two weeks. Don't look for results on the CDE's site until September 2. That's the word on the 'net, anyway.

Anyway, that's why I changed the title of the post.

UPDATE 2: OK, I changed it back. The results were only a day late, not a fortnight late.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this blog are those of the post authors and commenters. They are not necessarily those of The San Juan Unified School District, The California Department of Education, Pearson Education (or any of its imprints).